1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an EtherCAT-based Network system and operation method thereof, and more particularly to an EtherCAT-based Network system configured to automatically extract a PDO list for operation of slave device, and an operation method thereof.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The information disclosed in this Discussion of the Related Art section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the present disclosure and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.
The application of Ethernet (registered trademark; hereinafter omitted)-based communication protocol system is rapidly expanded in the industrial communication network used in the factory automation, process control facilities, building automation and infrastructure areas.
Particularly, application of industrial Ethernet (Ethernet used in the system for industrial use is generally called “industrial Ethernet”) developed for need of production automation system is widely expanded to all industrial fields including process automation, power IT and motion fields. The industrial Ethernet, which is based on an Ethernet technology, has a function of realizing real-time response performance required in the system for industrial use.
On international fields, ten or more different standards including Ethernet/Internet Protocol, Profinet, EtherCAT (Ethernet for Control Automation Technology) have been created by various standards groups including IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) in order to pre-occupy the markets.
Particularly, Ethernet protocol of full duplex Ethernet physical layers is a real-time industrial network that has gained much attention recently. The reason is that the Ethernet protocol provides fully opened technology, and uses Ethernet frames with excellent compatibility. Furthermore, in comparison with the conventional fieldbus (industrial network), the Ethernet protocol can be advantageously realized with relatively low expenses due to use of low-cost NICs (Network Interface Cards).
Data frames are transmitted from a master device in the EtherCAT protocol transmission method of broadcast type. Each slave device connected to the master device receives the data frames, analyzes and processes the data frames, and transmits the analyzed and processed data frames to the slave devices.
That is, each slave device in the EtherCAT protocol receives data by reading the data transmitted to a relevant slave device during data frame transmittal, inserts data to be transmitted and transmits the data to a next slave device, where PDO (Process Data Object) may be used for transmission of received/transmitted data between the master device and the slave devices.
Generally, data item forming the PDO is manually set and changed by using tools for setting the slave devices. As a result, user inconvenience increases, and particularly, in a case slave devices are supplied from various manufacturers, a user must disadvantageously select each PDO data item relative to hosts of slave devices to take excessive time for installation of slave devices. Another disadvantage is that erroneous operation of slave devices and generation of errors due to user's erroneous PDO setting may occur.